


Something New

by Nostalgic_Lemon



Category: Polygon/McElroy Vlogs & Podcasts RPF
Genre: Brian is an anxious boi, Brian is new, M/M, Pat is late, i don’t know what i’m doing, please don’t judge me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-06 18:40:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15891801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nostalgic_Lemon/pseuds/Nostalgic_Lemon
Summary: Brian is new to Polygon, he doesn’t really know anyone and is honestly just trying his best. Pat is a late boi and is kinda having an off day. Enjoy!





	1. Chapter 1

Pat was sufficiently flustered when he walked through the doors of the office. He hurriedly made his way to his desk, tossing a few good mornings to passing coworkers as he opened his laptop.

“Good morning, Pat.” He looked up to see Chris Plante sleepily grinning as he slowly sipped coffee from a Fortnite mug. Ignoring the many questions and quips that the mug inspired, Pat relaxed and closed his laptop over slightly, leaning back in his chair.

“Hey man, what’s up?”

“Nothing much.” The grin fell from Chris’s face a little, his eyebrows knitting together. “Say, shouldn’t you be in a meeting right now? Simone sent out an email about it like a week ago.”

Pat tensed, flinging open his laptop and scanning his emails until his eyes spotted the inconspicuous email. Next Tuesday: Meeting, 9:30 AM. No hazing the newbies! -Simone

“Shit.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Brian glanced around the room nervously. It was a relatively casual meeting, just meant to introduce him and Jenna to a few members of the video team before they were sent off on their own. Simone, Russ, and Clayton sat around the table, talking amongst each other. One empty seat occupied the spot directly across from Brian, and he couldn’t help but wonder who would sit there. He felt himself squirming a little as he waited for the meeting to start. Jenna, who was sat next to him, saw him fidgeting and sent him a quick, reassuring smile. Brian appreciatively smiled back, moving his hands from the table to his lap where they began to tug on the hem of his sleeves and pull at his watch straps.

Simone looked at her phone, sighed, and stood up. “Okay, everyone. I don’t want to waste anyone’s time, so we’re just going to get started. I think we should kick this thing off with some introductions. Who’s down to go first?”

Brian started to scan the room, hoping that someone would volunteer. He could help but feel that Simone’s suggestion was a little stupid; he already knew who everyone was. He felt Simone’s stare sweeping the room, and flinched as they made eye contact. “Brian?”

Brian opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, a tall man rushed into the room. He glanced around, panicked, before his eyes settled on the chair across from Brian. The man quickly seated himself, looking down at the table as his cheeks burned red. He looked slightly rumpled, his jacket half unzipped and his glasses slightly askew. His dark hair was messily pulled back in a ponytail, the strands falling in his face making him look even more haphazard. 

“Sorry about that, Simone,” He said in a low, embarrassed tone, lifting his head to look at her. He didn’t attempt to come up with an excuse, simply dropping his head back down and determinedly staring at the table top.

Simone shook her head, raising one hand to rub her eyes as she sighed once more. “No, no, it’s fine. We were just doing introductions, anyways, would you like to start us off, Pat?” Brian felt sudden recognition hit him as the long haired man looked up again. So this is Pat, he realized, finally understanding. He’d seen him in plenty of videos before. He looked familiar, but usually he was more put together on camera.

Pat stared up at her, surprised. “Yeah, no problem.” He straightened up, pushed back his shoulders and turned to face Jenna and Brian. “Hello, I’m Patrick Gill,” He said with a small smile. “You can call me Patrick if you want, but most people call me Pat. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have.” Pat looked directly into Brian’s eyes as he spoke, and Brian turned away, feeling his cheeks warm and his stomach flutter. Dammit, Brian cursed himself. Don’t be weird on your first day!

They made their way around the table, each person briefly introducing themselves by name, until they finally landed on Brian. Five expectant faces. Heat rushed to Brian’s cheeks as the attention turned to him, and he desperately attempted to seem relaxed.

“Hi, my name is Brian David Gilbert.” He smiled and gave a little wave, then collapsed back into his chair with a little sigh of relief as Jenna piped up next to him. Brian was sure he felt Pat’s gaze on him while he was speaking and throughout the meeting. Brian tried his best to remain nonchalant and not make eye contact. He couldn’t tell if he was just being paranoid or if Pat really was looking at him. After a few seconds he risked a glance upward in Pat’s direction. His eyes met Pat’s for a split second before the other man looked away, suddenly becoming very interested in the contents of his coffee mug. Brian felt a little swell of surprise and confusion. Why is he staring at me? 

He mentally kicked himself, remembering his outfit choice for the day. He took a second to discreetly look down at himself. A brightly patterned cockatoo shirt, khaki shorts, and orange converse with multi colored laces. Not exactly the kind of thing you’d wear to blend in, he mused. But, it was his first day, and he’d reasoned that nobody wants to blend in on their first day. Still.

After the meeting ended, Brian and Jenna were shown to their desks. Jenna’s was the first in a row of desks all pushed together, and it was conveniently close to both the water cooler and the bathrooms. Brian’s, however, was directly next to a huge window on the opposite side of the main room. There was another desk pushed up against the front of his desk, but nobody was sitting there and the desk in question didn’t offer very many clues as to who its owner was. There wasn’t much of a view(think ‘building’), but Brian loved it anyways. He’d been sitting in his chair for about twenty minutes, happily decorating his desk with pictures of him, Laura, and Jonah and just getting comfortable when he noticed Pat walking towards him. He quickly averted his eyes and pretended to be looking for something in his desk drawers to avoid an awkward conversation when he heard Pat sit down at the desk directly in front of him. Brian waited for a second or two, then poked his head up from under the desk to confirm what he heard. His eyes widened and he froze as he saw that yes, Patrick Gill was his deskmate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, thank you for stopping by and giving my lil fic a read! I’ve never done this before but I like this fandom and this ship and I decided “yo, if you can’t beat em, join em” if you know what I’m saying. I really want to keep writing this story, but this is all I have for now. Anyways, please feel free to give me constructive criticism and stuff because I honestly did try and really had fun writing this!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story continues! Join Brian, Jenna, Pat as I write the longest lunch scene with little to no actual eating

“Sup?” Pat asked, trying to hold back a smile as he watched a flustered Brian hastily sit up in his chair. He straightened his glasses and cleared his throat before casually smiling back at Pat.

“Not much, just making myself at home!” Pat scanned Brian’s desk as he said this, taking note of the adorable framed picture of a cat and a small container of birthday cards, letters, and postcards on the corner of the tabletop. It certainly looked homey to him.

Pat took a seat at his desk and pulled out his laptop, opening it and getting right to work. He watched Brian from the corner of his eye as he did this, intrigued by him. Brian didn’t do anything for a second, then hesitantly continued to place things on his desk. 

He’s kinda cute, Pat thought to himself. Pat had been excited for the new team members the second Tara had announced they were hiring two more. It had been a while since they got anyone else, and Pat was looking forward to getting some new ideas and more creative energy. He noticed the detail Brian put into placing each individual item on his desk, turning them this way and that and making incremental changes until he finally leaned away in his chair, satisfied with himself. Pat sighed, realizing that he wasn’t going to be able to focus enough to get any work done.

Pat closed his laptop over slightly and leaned around it to get Brian’s attention. Brian spotted Pat and blinked, staring right back. 

“Hello, Pat.” He said, sounding confused. “Is there something you need me to do?” 

“No, not really. I just wanted to talk to you.” Brian’s eyes widened, and Pat swiftly added: “You know, because you’re my desk mate?” 

He seemed to relax a little and smiled, nodding at Pat. “Oh, yeah, no problem. What’s up?”

Pat leaned over his desk a little bit, reaching over to point at the cat picture. “Who’s that?”

Brian immediately perked up. “That’s Zuko. I share him with my sister, Laura.” He gestured at another picture on his desk. It showed Brian and two other people laughing about something, Pat didn’t know what, a moment captured in time. One of them was a man that Pat didn’t recognize, and the other was a girl who looked vaguely like Brian. She shared the bright look in his eyes. That must be Laura. Pat nodded back, giving Brian an amiable smile.

They stayed like that for a little while, with Pat asking Brian to explain all of the keepsakes on his desk. Rather than acting closed off or timid, Brian cheerfully and readily answered all of Pat’s queries. We get along well, Pat thought as he laughed at one of Brian’s jokes.

“Well,” Brian said after a while, shuffling his feet. “I should probably get to filling out all of this paperwork.” He pulled out an overstuffed folder from his bag and dropped it onto the desk with a loud thud. “You know, first-day stuff.” He said, winking.

Pat’s eyes crinkled as he sat back in his chair, smiling at Brian. Their conversation was over way too soon and Pat watched as Brian clicked a pen, opened the folder, and started working. Pat watched as Brian’s hair started to fall out of place and into his eyes as he read, causing him to stop for a second and push it back with his free hand. Oh no, Pat thought. He’s really cute.  
~ ~ ~ ~  
Brian tried to get through as many forms as he could before lunch, but they were stupid and long and he was far too distracted to care. He peeked over his stack of folders to see Pat. He was biting his lip, eyebrows furrowed at something he was reading on his laptop. Brian felt the beginnings of a familiar fluttering in his stomach and flicked his eyes back down to the paper in front of him. Stupid.

Before he knew it, his very first lunch break came. He was packing up his things, kinda hoping that Pat would ask him if he wanted to eat with him when he saw Jenna coming towards him out of the corner of his eye. 

“Hey,” She said, smiling brightly at him and stopping right next to his desk. She was carrying a lunch box in one hand, swinging it lightly. “Wanna get out of here?” He risked a look at Pat out of the corner of his eyes and saw that he seemed to still be busy working.

“Yeah, no problem.” He got up, pushed in his chair, and turned towards Pat. “See you later!” He said lightly. The other man looked up from his screen and gave a small wave with one hand before returning his gaze to his computer.

As they walked away from his desk, Brian couldn’t help but partially tune out Jenna. She was dramatically recounting a story about an awkward interaction by the water cooler and while Brian loved a good Relatable Moment, his mind kept going back to his new deskmate. He knew he was probably reading too deeply into it, but he was kinda into Pat. He kept remembering Pat laughing at one of his jokes or listening intently and nodding sincerely while he went on and on about his different coffee mugs. He was brought back to reality when Jenna suddenly stopped walking. 

“Brian, are you listening to me?” 

His eyes focused and landed on a concerned looking Jenna. “What? Yeah, I’m good, I’m cool. What’s up?”

"Are you sure?” She said, scanning his face and looking doubtful. “You seemed to clock out for a second there, buddy.”

“Yeah, I’m just thinking about a lot,” Brian shot her a small smile and looked down as they continued walking. “You know… First-day stuff?”

“Oh my goodness, don’t even get me started!” They laughed, and Brian decided that Jenna was definitely alright. She led him over to a couch in one of the main lounge areas in the office and plopped down on the nearest one, pulling out her lunch box and placing it on the coffee table in front of her. “Oh, I forgot to mention it, but I brought my own lunch today.” She looked sheepish. “Do you want to order something?” 

Brian froze for a second as he registered her question, then immediately responded: “Oh no, I have lunch too!” Jenna stared at him quizzically and he elaborated. “I must have just gotten distracted when you came over, I’ll go get it.” 

Jenna opened her mouth and started to get up but Brian assured her that yes, he was fine, before hurriedly heading back towards his desk. As he turned a corner, he collided with another person, sending their lunch to the ground. 

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” Brian exclaimed, kneeling down to help clean up the mess. 

“No, it’s all good.” Recognizing the voice, his head shot up and he internally groaned. Of course he’d knocked Pat’s food on the floor. Of all people. He helped Pat maneuver the food back into the container all while profusely apologizing. 

“At least let me buy you lunch sometime,” Brian begged, looking pleadingly up at Pat. Pat seemed to consider this for a second, then gave him a thankful smile.

“That’d be great.”

“Yeah?” Brian responded, smiling too despite himself.

“Yeah.” They just looked at each other, a swelling happiness in Brian’s chest. “Um, I’m gonna go to lunch now.” Pat coughed awkwardly. 

“Oh, yeah, me too,” Brian said, blushing. He stepped out of Pat’s way and half ran back to his desk, trying to ignore the embarrassment and guilt eating at him. He grabbed his lunch and hurried back to the lounge, sitting on the couch next to Jenna. He began to eat, recalling his fleeting encounter with Pat. He laughed to himself, shaking his head slightly. 

“What’s so funny?” Jenna asked, raising her eyebrows. 

“Nothing.” Brain said, bashfully smiling at her.

She stared incredulously at him and finally spoke. “You know, you’re one weird guy, Brian.” 

“Yeah…” He agreed. “But we’re cool, right?”

Jenna laughed out loud at that, nodding through her giggles. “Sure. We’re cool.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this! It took me a long time, but I want to be sure about stuff before I post it. Also, school is back in full swing. I promise that I'll try to develop this story some more, I'm also interested to see where this goes lol. I hope y'all liked it!


End file.
